First Date
by regenderate
Summary: A year after Faith, Buffy, and the gang start a boarding school for young Slayers, Faith and Buffy have their first "official" date. / Sequel to Be Held, but will still make sense if you haven't read that. Just some self-indulgent fluff.


Faith knocked on the door to her house, feeling a little silly in a suit, a bouquet of roses at her side. The door opened, and one of the little Slayers (a newbie, in Faith's mind as Anita, 7, Mexico) poked a curious head around it and greeted Faith in Spanish.

"Sorry, kid. Spanish skills are limited. ¿Donde esta Buffy?" Faith had been trying to learn a few words in languages that the baby Slayers spoke, but it was hard going.

Anita nodded and ran off, yelling Buffy's name. A moment later, Buffy herself appeared, clad in the cutest little blue dress Faith had ever seen.

"You look good, B," she said.

"You too. Where'd you get that suit?"

Faith looked down at herself. "Oh, yeah, Andrew made me go shopping with him." She shrugged and thrust the roses at Buffy. "Anyway, I got you flowers."

"Wow." Buffy took the roses, smiling. "Never knew you were such a romantic."

"I wasn't," Faith said. "Some girl came along and made me want to get flowers and stuff. You know her?"

Buffy's smile grew wider. "Who?"

"Name's Summers. She's pretty, too. You want to go?"

"Let me find a vase." Buffy started to move, then stopped mid-turn. "Do we have a vase?"

"We have some really big glasses," Faith said.

"Perfect." Buffy disappeared into the house. Faith waited at the doorstep, fidgeting awkwardly. She had never technically been on a date before, and it showed in her hands, wringing themselves out, and her legs, shaking beneath her. What was she afraid of? Buffy definitely liked her. But then, what wasn't she afraid of? Buffy liked her now, but that wasn't necessarily permanent. Faith knew only too well how fast love could fade. Which meant she had to do her absolute best to make sure that this love didn't.

Buffy returned, grinning, completely unaware that she was interrupting Faith's angst. She took Faith's hand and tugged, leading a laughing Faith down the steps of their house.

"So, where are we going?"

"It's a surprise," Faith said.

"So… if I bug you about it long enough, you'll tell me?"

Faith looked down at Buffy's dancing smile. "If you bug me about it long enough," she said, "you'll know the secret, because we'll be there."

"Wow. You sure are a tough one."

"You know it, B." Faith squeezed Buffy's hand. "I just hope you like candlelit dinners."

"You know me so well."

Faith had picked out a fairly generic fancy restaurant with white tablecloths and everything. When it came to romance, Buffy loved cliches, and this was no exception. When Faith pulled Buffy out of the car and into the restaurant, Buffy's eyes lit up, then softened as she looked at Faith.

They were shown to their table and they sat down to look at the menu. Faith glanced at Buffy over the top of hers. Buffy was looking back, and Faith quickly looked back down, butterflies in her stomach. Huh. Butterflies. That was new.

Or old.

Faith glanced up again. Buffy was looking at her with a soft smile on her face. For a moment, Faith let her guard down, but then she caught herself returning the smile, and that wouldn't do at all. She immediately turned back to her menu, despite the fact that she already knew what she wanted (she pretty much got the same thing at every restaurant: whatever looked the most like something she'd had before. Today, that was going to be steak).

The waiter came and asked for their orders. Faith ordered her steak, and Buffy ordered some fancy French thing, complete with appetizer.

And then the waiter left, and there was no menu to hide behind, and now Faith had to actually look at Buffy. Shit.

"So," she said. "Come here often?"

"Could you be any more cliche?" Buffy asked.

"Sure I could. I could have been the sort of person who wants to be taken to a fancy restaurant and given a dozen red roses on her first date."

"Wait," Buffy said. "Do you not want to be here?"

Faith shook her head. "Just not used to it, B."

"But you're having fun, right?"

"I'm having fun if you are," Faith said, shrugging. "I've never even been on a real date. We've got to start somewhere, right? White tablecloth is a bit much, though."

"Next time, we'll do what you want," Buffy said.

"Wow," Faith replied. "Two minutes in and you're already talking about a next time. I must've done something right."

"Faith, we live in the same house," Buffy reminded. "We're well and truly attached."

"Huh." Faith thought for a moment. "I always thought I'd hate living in the same house as someone. Thought I'd run away as fast as I could."

"Thanks for that," Buffy said. "I kind of like having you around."

Faith shrugged. "You're pretty tolerable, B. Congratulations."

"I do my best."

The appetizer came. It was something involving leaves and olives and cheese and some other vegetable cut into fun shapes and sticking out above the leaves and olives and cheese. Since Buffy had ordered it, probably in French, Faith let her divide it up onto the two little plates they had been given.

"This is weird," she said. "I've never been to a restaurant nicer than, like, Taco Bell. Are they all this quiet?"

"The fancy ones are," Buffy said. "They're too full of couples trying to be refined."

"Is that us, then?" Faith asked. "I always wanted to be refined."

"Congratulations, then," Buffy said. "I have to say, you do clean up nice." She stabbed an olive with her fork. "Careful, Faith. You wind up domesticated one of these days."

Faith looked down at her food. She put some in her mouth and chewed. It was good. Huh. She looked back up at Buffy before her eyes started darting around. "I don't know, B. Domesticated doesn't seem all that bad anymore. With you."

She looked back down right away, but she could feel Buffy's eyes on her.

"Are you saying," Buffy asked, "that I domesticated you? The great Faith Lehane?"

"I don't know about great," Faith said. "What with all the murder."

"Hey, we're past the murder," Buffy protested. "Come on. You save people. You're raising little Slayers. You went through months of trying to redeem yourself. That's pretty great."

"I guess." Faith took another bite. "Good cheese."

"I'm the queen of appetizers," Buffy said. "Just ask Dawn."

"I will," Faith said, grinning.

"On second thought," Buffy said, "don't."

Faith laughed. "Now I extra will."

Buffy groaned. "Why did I have to have a sister?"

"Weirdo monks," Faith answered, eyeing one of the vegetables. "You think I'll die if I eat this?"

"It's just fennel," Buffy said.

"What?"

"You won't die."

Faith shrugged and ate it. "Huh. Fancy food is weird. I gotta say, B, a good cheeseburger never really goes out of style."

Buffy shrugged. "Not for you, maybe. Some of us enjoy taking risks."

"Well, compared to the risks of being a Slayer, this is pretty tame," Faith said. "Or even the risks of being a kid on the streets of Boston."

"Exactly. A safe risk. Weird food is a safe risk. I'm not going to die because I ate an olive."

"Huh. Interesting thought."

The waiter came back and took their plates, and Buffy and Faith fell silent. Faith took a sip from her water, and then started chewing the straw, and then stopped chewing the straw. She put the water back down.

"What are you supposed to talk about on a first date?" she asked. "Isn't there some small talk we're supposed to put ourselves through?"

"I think we've done it all already," Buffy mused. "But we could try. Um, do you work?"

"Yeah, I'm a teacher at this boarding school for freakishly strong girls," Faith said. "If this were a real first date and I didn't know you, I wouldn't be able to tell you I was the Slayer, right?"

"I think even saying the school is for strong girls is an overstep," Buffy said. "Try again."

"Fine. I teach girls. At a boarding school."

"What subject?" Buffy asked.

"Hell if I know," Faith groused. "Phys ed, I guess. What do you call it when your job is to teach girls how to beat the crap out of people?"

"Phys ed," Buffy said.

"Um, sure. What about you, Buffy? What do you do?"

"Funny thing," Buffy said. "My job title is pretty similar to yours, actually."

"Imagine that."

"There's something you should know, though," she said.

"What's that?" Faith asked.

"I have two foster kids at home."

"Hey, same," Faith said. "They're pretty cool. Strong, too."

"Wow, mine, too. It's almost like we live in the same house."

"Something like that," Faith agreed. She couldn't maintain her poker face any longer, and she broke out laughing. "I guess the small talk doesn't work when our lives are already the same."

"Slain any good vampires lately?" Buffy asked.

"You've been there for all of them, B," Faith answered. "Anita made a pretty good kill the other day, though. I think she even made a pun at it, but she said it in Spanish, so all I got out of it was the word 'evil.'"

"Wow. Slayer puns really are universal."

And then the waiter brought their food, so Faith and Buffy stopped talking about killing things long enough to accept it and take a few bites.

"Oh, did I tell you?" Buffy asked, a few minutes later. "Dawn says she wants me to meet someone."

"Little Dawnie?" Faith asked. "She's old enough to want you to meet people?"

"She's gotten pretty big," Buffy said. "I was only fifteen when I was dating Angel."

"Dawn's only fourteen," Faith said. "Isn't she?"

"Try seventeen," Buffy replied.

"I guess being in a coma during someone's formative years messes you up pretty bad," Faith said.

"Don't forget the jail," Buffy quipped.

"I was actually in jail longer," Faith said. "And I was awake. So, yeah, not forgetting that." It was good, though, that her coma-and-jail double feature was far enough away that it was acceptable joke material. It had been a pretty bad time for Faith, and she had made it a pretty bad time for Buffy, so between the two of them, joking about it was a pretty big deal.

"Do you think we'll ever have a normal conversation?" Buffy asked.

"What, this isn't normal?"

"You know what I mean," Buffy said. "Like, about our lives, and our schools, and not our past."

"The past is pretty important," Faith said. "It kind of shapes the present. Like, if I hadn't spent all that time in a coma, I might not have run to L. A. when I did, and if I hadn't run to L. A., I wouldn't have been begging for death at Angel's feet, and if I hadn't been begging for death at Angel's feet, I never would have tried to redeem myself, and then I'd still just be sad and confused and, in all likelihood, dead." She shrugged. "But all that did happen, so now I'm here, getting my life together, on a date with the girl I was trying to talk myself out of liking when I was seventeen."

"You liked me when we were seventeen?" Buffy asked.

"Buffy, I asked you to homecoming. You have to know by now that that was not at all heterosexual."

"God, I forgot about homecoming. What an awful night."

Faith raised an eyebrow. "You saying I'm a bad date?"

"No, remember? I spent the whole night with Cordelia, fighting demons in formalwear, and then at the end I wasn't even homecoming queen." Buffy sighed. "See? Even when we talk about homecoming, it's not normal."

"How about prom?" Faith asked. "Was I still around by then?"

"I think you were evil," Buffy said. "And Angel dumped me two days before because he was two hundred years old and I was seventeen, and then I spent the whole night fighting off hellhounds so that my classmates could have a normal prom."

"Well, any good stories from before you were called?" Faith asked.

"I was May Queen at my school in L. A.," Buffy said. "I was so shallow then, though. You would have hated me."

"Yeah, well, I already had a fake I. D.," Faith said. "Not exactly the most appealing of fourteen-year-olds."

There was a moment of silence, and then Buffy said, "I've got it."

"What?"

"A normal conversation. We can't talk about the past, because you were evil and in a coma and in jail and I was too busy to care, and we can't talk about the present, because our whole lives revolve around baby Slayer boarding school-"

"Think we could get Giles to rename it that?" Faith asked.

"I'm not done," Buffy complained. "What if we talk about what hasn't happened yet? We can pretend our lives will be normal, and it could be true, because the future hasn't come yet, and anything could happen."

"We could both lose our Slayer powers," Faith mused.

"Exactly. And if we lost our powers, we wouldn't be qualified to teach phys ed at the baby Slayer boarding school."

"So we could move…"

"Into the city?" Buffy asked.

"Back to L. A.?" Faith asked.

"I don't want to leave Willow and Giles and Xander and everybody behind," Buffy said.

"They'd be fine," Faith said. "And you're always complaining about missing the California weather."

"You have a point," Buffy said. "And Angel's there, if morally corrupt."

"I don't know if he's actually morally corrupt," Faith said. "But we're not talking about that."

"Right. In this world, Angel is just... "

"A friend," Faith said.

"Sure. Okay. So we'd move to L. A., and we'd have to get jobs- normal person jobs."

"We can be whatever we want?" Faith asked.

"We're making up the rules," Buffy said.

"Okay. I'd be a social worker," Faith said. "The regular kind. I want to help kids."

"So, you'd do what you do now, but without magic?" Buffy asked.

Faith shrugged. "Pretty much. What about you? What's your secret dream?"

"God. It's been so long since I've been allowed to have one." Buffy paused to chew. "I can dream big, right?"

"Yeah," Faith said.

"Olympic skater," Buffy said. "I'd be too old, though. Skate coach."

"You never told me you skate."

"I did," Buffy said. "Before I was called. I've barely even been to a rink since then."

"Whoa. In another world, you're a gold medalist."

"I doubt it," Buffy said. "I was never as good as all that."

"Can you still do tricks?" Faith asked.

"Probably," Buffy answered. "Slayer strength cancels out years of not practicing, right?"

"Definitely."

"Do we have kids in this world?" Faith asked.

"Do you want them?" Buffy asked.

"I used to think I didn't," Faith said, "but these Slayers aren't so bad."

"If we're having kids," Buffy said, "we should be married. Are we married in this world?"

"Is it legal?" Faith asked.

"Not yet," Buffy said. "But people do the ceremony. And then they live together and have kids."

"But you can have kids without being married," Faith said. "Sure saw lots of that as a kid."

"Yeah, but then you don't get to wear the white dress."

"I'm more of a tux girl," Faith said. "And I never thought so much about marriage. Always meant tying myself down, you know? Some guy coming in and ruining my life. My mom got married, and then she got divorced and spent the rest of her life drinking to forget that it ever happened. Guess I didn't think of it as a choice."

"I never thought much about what happened after," Buffy said. "But the white dress, the walking down the aisle, a big party…"

A year ago, all this would have terrified Faith. She was the queen of commitment issues. But now, she had a house, she had a girlfriend, she basically even had kids. What was marriage after all that?

"We could make it happen," she said. "Big party, lots of friends. White dress, if you want. Invite all your friends. Maybe by the time we make it happen I'll have friends, too."

"We should wait," Buffy said.

"Hey, I'm not proposing," Faith said, grinning. "I need at least a month to plan."

Buffy laughed. "I'll be on the lookout."

"Awesome. One proposal, coming right up." Faith looked down and fiddled with her meal. Suddenly, she was self-conscious.

She felt Buffy's hand touch hers under the table. Faith took it, clumsily trying to cut her steak with just her fork. When she looked back up, Buffy was looking right at her.

"No pressure," she said.

"Thanks," Faith answered.

A few minutes later, the waiter was back, clearing their plates and asking if they wanted dessert. They decided to split a chocolate mousse- Faith didn't know what that was, but Buffy promised her it was good, and not at all like mousse that you put in hair.

As it turned out, Buffy was right: it was both the best thing Faith had ever tried, and not something she wanted in her hair.

"Who knew you were such a foodie?" she said, grinning.

"I'm full of mysteries, Faith. Thought you'd know that by now."

Faith had put a lot of thought into what to do after dinner. She'd never been on a real date, after all, and she wanted to get it right. She had had to think real hard about what she had heard people talking about doing in high school, back when she had actually attended.

So when Buffy asked, "What now?" as they walked out of the restaurant, Faith's response was easy:

"Don't you know the cliche? Dinner and a movie?"

"Ooh, what movie?" Buffy asked.

"Don't know yet," Faith said. "Figured we'd find out when we got there. Any preferences?"

"There's a new Harry Potter out. Have you seen the first two?"

"Nah, but I read the books," Faith said. "They don't really show movies that recent in prison. Good books, though."

"Willow hates them," Buffy said. "Says the magic is too unrealistic."

"She's just jealous," Faith replied. "Bet she wishes she could just wave a wand and make stuff appear."

Buffy laughed. "Yeah, probably."

They turned into the theater, and a grin spread over Faith's face. This was way nicer than anything in prison- the walls were lined with glowing posters, the air smelled of popcorn, and the people walking around them were talking animatedly to each other, all excited about what they were about to see.

"Ooh, B, let's get popcorn," Faith said, taking Buffy's arm and trying to drag her to the shiny glass concessions booth.

"We have to get tickets first," Buffy answered, dragging Faith with equal force towards the ticket counter. After a moment locked in standstill, Faith relented and let Buffy's momentum carry her to the counter, where they awkwardly let go of each other long enough to buy two tickets to the nine o'clock show.

Ten minutes later, they were sitting in the dark theater, sharing a giant bucket of popcorn and watching previews.

"If only my younger self could see me now," Faith whispered, grabbing a fistful of popcorn. "She'd kill me."

Buffy giggled. "Popcorn hog," she whispered back.

"Guilty as charged."

As the movie started, Faith realized how much her younger self had been missing out on. Sure, the movie was nice, but even nicer was bumping hands with Buffy when they both reached for popcorn at the same time, and the way Buffy rested her head on Faith's shoulder halfway through, and the way Buffy stifled giggles at Faith's whispered commentary.

God. Had Faith really become that much of a hopeless romantic? A year living the perfect domestic life, complete with kids, had softened her up. And somehow, she didn't really mind. She and Buffy left the theater, hands bumping against each other, and got a taxi home. They held hands in the car, low enough that the driver wouldn't see, and when they got to their house, they lingered on the doorstep:

"If we're doing cliches," Buffy said, "we can't leave out the good night kiss."

"We sleep in the same bed," Faith pointed out. "Seems a little premature."

"Whatever," Buffy replied, eloquent as always. She took Faith's hand and pulled her closer. Her voice was quiet. "I had fun tonight."

"Me, too," Faith said.

"We'll have to do it again sometime."

"Yes."

Faith pushed back a lock of Buffy's hair. "You're real pretty, B. Anyone ever told you that?"

Buffy smiled. "You're not half bad yourself."

And Faith leaned over and Buffy raised herself on her tiptoes and their lips met, Faith's hand on Buffy's neck and Buffy's hand on Faith's back and Faith's other hand still joined with Buffy's at their side… Faith had almost gotten used to kissing Buffy, but she would never get used to the gentle affection of being pulled ever so slightly closer, of slowly pulling away to catch a glimpse of love in those big eyes…

And then the door opened, and Jan (14, Germany) was whistling at them, so Faith and Buffy had to stop their moment long enough to turn to her in indignation.

Later, though, they got their real good night kiss, and they fell asleep in each other's arms. Faith had never known dates could be so much fun.


End file.
